1. Speakers know they're not 40. They're 55 or 60 or 70. Knowing their age means no delusions about passing for younger. Audiences don't necessarily want young. And they giggle, at least internally, when someone tries to feign youth. Think Dan Rather in the last five, ten years. Audiences want perspectives directly relevant to their needs. That's why Warren Buffett talks and we all listen.

The hitch with cosmetic procedures is that they are, literally and metaphorically, on the surface. The 55-year old executive just pushed out of her big job who is bitter and doesn't realize she's just another bozo on the bus is going to come across as old, even with $30,000 worth of "work" (the prevailing euphemism) done.

Today's 40 year old gets it that the work world isn't pretty. Bitterness, regret, rigidity? That marks you as old.

2. Speakers frame their reference field to what's accessible to those under-40. Anecodotes about how Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler, the thrill of seeing the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan," and the brutal recession of the mid-1970s. How about an anecdote about how Steve Jobs saved and is still saving Apple?

3. Speakers speed up their sense of time. That means getting to the meat of speech faster - and smoother. And staying on message.

Donald Trump uses the expression, let's cut to the chase. Another useful rhetorical model is Diane Sawyer, who gets in and out fast.

4. Speakers dispense with ego needs. The executive ego has become a total anachronism. In this era of blogging, cell phones, instant messaging, we all consider ourselves very very important. Maybe we will let Nicole Kidman or The Gang of Two at Google act just as important as we consider ourselves to be. But they're on the short list.

When it's said that 55 is the new 40, all that means is that we mature professionals are being allowed to keep on the playing field. How long that will be on depends on how we comport ourselves at game time.